


i see my heart beat inside a television screen

by nirav



Series: shadowboxing with giants [3]
Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-07
Updated: 2018-02-18
Packaged: 2019-03-15 03:13:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13604349
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nirav/pseuds/nirav
Summary: a tumblr prompt:I wanna live in a world where they're able to save Sam from Reign, she ends up with Alex and then Sara somehow ends up on their Earth and is like "...I thought I was coming here present day, sorry, must've overshot by 15ish years?" and just completely confused





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> this technically takes place in the same universe as [this](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12929040) and can also be considered to be in the same universe as [this](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13600167), though i don't think either are strictly necessary reading to understand this.

“Gideon.”

“Yes, Captain?”

Sara slumps back into her chair in the empty kitchen, kicking her feet up onto the table and contemplating the half-empty cup of coffee in her hands.  The ship is all but empty, the crew scattered through time for a well-earned vacation, and except for Ray tinkering along in the workshop, Sara’s on her own.  

“Can you find Alex Danvers in her universe?”

“Certainly, Captain.”  A moment passes before Gideon chirps out a location. “Shall I program the portal?”

“That’s the plan.”  She pulls her feet back to the floor with a groan.  “Tell Ray I’m going for a walk.”  She flips the disc Cisco had given her to travel between universes like a quarter.  “Give me a ring if you need anything.”

“Have fun, Captain,” Gideon says, automated and dripping with implication anyways, and Sara rolls her eyes.

“Don’t get sassy.”  Sara opens the portal and pauses only to flip her middle finger in the general direction of the central computer on the bridge before stepping through the portal and into the living room of--

\--definitively _not_ Alex Danvers’ apartment.  

“Dammit, Gideon,” Sara mutters, glaring at the defective portal device.  Her shoulders tighten when the air around her shifts for a split second and she spins around in time to almost get her hands up before a blur slams her into the closest wall.

The blur is a woman, long dark hair and dark eyes and very, very angry.  Sara grunts at the impact and forces herself to stay still, the grip holding her still far too strong to break, almost like Supergirl’s.  

“Who the hell are you?”

“Hi,” Sara says as pleasantly as she can.  “I can explain--”

“Explain how you walked out of thin air into my living room?”  Hands tighten on Sara’s arms, hard enough for her bones to protest, and Sara’s teeth grind together.

“I can, actually,” she says mildly.  “Especially if you let me go.”

“Not happening,” the other woman says, still glaring at her.  She lifts Sara higher against the wall, enough that her weight is hanging and her shoulders protest.  

“Ow,” Sara mumbles.  Green and silver flash in her periphery, the bracelets on her captor’s wrists glowing a little too much like-- “Is that Kryptonite?”

Her answer comes in the form of an even tighter hold to her arms, and Sara grunts.

The front door opens and Sara takes advantage of the distraction to shift her weight and throw a knee out.  It slams into the other woman’s chest and bounces right off, leaving Sara groaning because it was like hitting a brick wall.

“Hey, baby, we’re-- what the hell--” That’s very definitely Alex Danvers turning the corner with a teenager at her side.

“So this is the right place,” Sara grumbles, rescinding her silent irritation at Gideon.  “Hey, Danvers.”

“You know her?”

“Yes, that’s--Sara, what are you _doing_ here?”  Alex’s hand falls to the other woman’s shoulder, careful and familiar, and Sara raises an eyebrow at her, blatant enough that Alex clears her throat loudly and blushes.  “Sam, she’s a friend, you can let her go.”

Sam glares at Sara for another few seconds before she sighs and lets go, letting Sara drop down the few feet between her feet and the floor.

“Thanks,” Sara says, stretching her arms out with a wince.  She turns her attention to Alex, eyebrows up.  “Aren’t you going to introduce me?”

Alex huffs out a sigh and rolls her eyes.  “Sam, this is Sara.  She’s a friend of the family.  Sara, this is Sam.”

“I’m Ruby,” the kid pipes up, elbowing her way into the front.  

“And that’s Ruby,” Alex echoes.

“Ruby, go get started on your homework,” Sam says, still glaring at Sara.

“But--”

“Ruby, please,” Alex adds.  “I’ll explain later.”

“It’s not like I’m a kid, you know,” Ruby grumbles, even as she stomps up the stairs.

“So,” Sara says slowly, looking back and forth between Sam and Alex.  “I feel like we got off on the wrong foot.”  She offers a hand to Sam, who glares at it in return.  

“You appeared in my living room out of thin air,” Sam says.  She folds her arms over her chest.  “So yeah, you could say that.”

“You didn’t,” Alex says with a sigh at Sara.  “Seriously?”

“Hey, I didn’t know you’d _moved_ ,” Sara says defensively.  “I just told Gideon to give me the coordinates.  It’s not my fault she didn’t warn me that you’d moved to the suburbs and had a wife and a kid.”  She folds her arms over her chest, mirroring Sam’s posture.  “Way to keep me in the loop, Danvers.”

Alex glances between the glares both of them have leveled at her and groans.  

“Did I overshoot by a couple of decades or something?  I was aiming for 2018 but--”

“Wait,” Sam says sharply.  “What does that mean?”

“Oh, boy,” Alex mumbles.  “I-- maybe we should all sit down.”

“I’m a time traveler,” Sara says helpfully.  Alex lets out another groan and rubs at her forehead and Sam goes slack for the first time to stare dumbly at Sara, who shrugs and adds, “From a parallel universe.”

“I’m going to _kill_ you,” Alex mutters.

"You wouldn't be the first," Sara says with a wide grin.

 

* * *

 

“Time travel,” Sam says, pacing in front of the couch.  “And parallel universes.  Are a thing.”

“Yep,” Sara says.  “Your girl here even bounced over to my universe a few times.”

“You what?” Sam turns with wide eyes to Alex, who groans and slumps back into the couch.

“Oops,” Sara mumbles.

“It was just for a little bit,” Alex says, swirling her hands around uselessly.  “For Kara’s friend’s wedding.”

“You went to a parallel universe,” Sam says slowly.  “For a wedding?”

“It was right after the Daxamite invasion, and Maggie and I had just split up, and Kara and I both needed a break, so, you know.” Alex throws her hands up.  “We went to an alternate universe for a wedding.”

“Jesus,” Sam says, pushing at her hair and pacing again.  “And your friend the time traveler just...popped in for a visit?”

“Unannounced and unexpected, I might add,” Alex says with a glare at Sara, who shrugs.  

“I had some time off, and the last time I saw you, you were a hot mess,” she says.  “Thought I’d come by and check in.”

“Check in,” Sam says slowly.  She looks from Sara to Alex and back again, and Alex drops her head into her hands.  “You two didn’t--”

“It was a wedding hookup,” Sara says with a wave of one hand.  “Hardly counts.”

“And maybe once after that,” Alex mumbles into her hands.  

“And it was a long time ago,” Sara adds.

“Not that long,” Alex says with a sigh.  “You didn’t overshoot by that much.  Like...a few years.  Ish.”

Sara pauses, glancing towards the closest collection of picture frames, filled with pictures of Sam and Alex and Ruby, brow creasing for a moment.  

“I had Ruby when I was sixteen,” Sam says quietly.  She finally sits down, curling into an armchair and propping her head on one hand.  

“Right,” Sara says.  “And you two are--”

“Two years,” Alex says, glancing over at Sam.  

“Well,” Sara says presently.  “Good for you, Danvers.”  She punches gently at Alex’s shoulder.  “I’m glad you found someone.”

“Yeah,” Alex says, chin in one hand and eyes on Sam, who offers her a small smile.

“They’re super sappy,” Ruby says from the bottom of the stairs.  “Aren’t they?”

“They super are,” Sara confirms, winking at her.  “Ruby, right?”

“Yeah,” Ruby says, bouncing down the last few stairs with her soccer bag in tow.  “Mom, I have practice.”

“Right,” Sam breathes out.  She pushes up from her chair and slaps at her pockets.  “Where are--”

“Kitchen,” Alex says.  “I can take her, today’s your day off for--”

“It’s okay,” Sam says.  She squeezes Alex’s shoulder momentarily.  “You two should catch up.”  

Alex hurries after her into the kitchen, leaving Sara to fend for herself with Ruby.  “Sam,” she says quietly.  “Are you--”

“I’m okay,” Sam says with a deep breath.  She grabs her car keys from the counter and lets Alex pull her around, not pulling against the grip on her hands.  She smiles and kisses Alex, soft and easy.  “I promise.”

“Are you sure?” Alex says.  “I know that this is a lot.”

“I mean, on the grand scale of things, it’s not that much,” Sam says, head tilting and nose wrinkling.  “It’s way less than having a genetically engineered war machine implanted in my head, so, you know.”

“What about,” Alex starts, pauses, clears her throat.  “That me and Sara--”

“You might have noticed the teenager in the living room,” Sam says.  “Walking ,talking proof that I _also_ had sex with someone before I met you.  It’s not like you have something to apologize for, you know.”

“Are you sure?” Alex mumbles.  “Sure feels like it.”

“You really don’t.”  Sam pulls her hands free and winds her arms around Alex’s waist.  “To be honest, the fact that you managed to bang a time traveling super-assassin from a parallel universe _twice_ is actually really impressive.”

“Oh, God.”  Alex groans and drops her forehead onto Sam’s shoulder.  “Don’t say it like that.”

“Totally say it like that,” Sara says from the doorway. She smirks at Alex’s glare.  “It makes us both sound super cool.”  She jerks her thumb over one shoulder towards the front door.  “The kid got impatient and decided to wait in the car.  Figure she might start hitting on the horn pretty soon if she’s not on her way.”

“She was so much easier when she was six,” Sam mutters.  She kisses Alex again and shoulders her purse.  “I’ll be back in a little while.”  She pauses on her way out, then holds her hand out to Sara.  “Sorry I almost broke your arms earlier.”

“Sorry I teleported into your living room without knocking first.”  Sara shakes her hand and shrugs.  “That’s on me.”

“Are you sticking around?”

“Maybe,” Sara says with another shrug.  “I’m on vacation.”

“You could stay for dinner,” Sam offers.  “I feel like Ruby would get a kick out of you.”

“Maybe so,” Sara says, smiling slow and lazy.  The car horn sounds outside and Sam rolls her eyes and sets out at a jog, leaving the two of them standing in the kitchen.  “So,” Sara says after a long moment.

“Yeah,” Alex mumbles.  

“You seem happy.”  Sara leans against the doorjamb.

“Yeah,” Alex says again, smiling in spite of herself.  “I am.”

“Good,” Sara says.  “Now, tell me about why your girlfriend has kryptonite bracelets and is still as strong as your sister.”

Alex groans.  “I need a beer for this,” she mutters.  She gestures to the barstools at the counter and retrieves two beers from the fridge, settling at Sara’s side.  “It’s a pretty long story.”

Sara cracks open her beer and taps it against Alex’s.  “I’ve got all the time in the world.”


	2. Chapter 2

“Okay, so walk me through this again.”  Sara paces slowly from one side of the kitchen to the other, one hand holding loosely onto a beer and the other casually flipping a kitchen knife.  Alex huffs out a sigh from her spot at the stove, waving her free hand lazily over her shoulder.  “Sometime in the relatively immediate time after we last hung out--”

“Hung out, she says,” Alex says with a snort.

“--you and Kara all realized that your friend, the _incredibly_ hot super-corporate brunette with amazing legs--”

“If you hit on my girlfriend, I’m going to shoot you.”

“--was actually a weird Kryptonian with an alternate personality that wanted to go all genocidal on the world--”

“It wasn’t an alternate personality.”  Alex turns the burner down and settles a lid on the pot, turns around with a towel over one shoulder and arms folded over her chest.  “It was a--”

“Genetically modified implantation to the brain,” Sara echoes, flipping the knife and pointing it at Alex before resuming her pacing.  “And then you all saved the world, and saved the girl, and now you’re not just hooking up with said girl, you’re living with her and her kid.  And you _cook_.”  She points another knife at the bolognese simmering on the stove behind Alex.

“Look, it’s not my fault you took two years to come back and say hi.”  

“Uh huh,” Sara says slowly.  “So.  Ignoring all of the genocidal alien war machine nonsense, how did you two actually get together?”

“It was--slow,” Alex says.  She picks at the edge of her beer label.  “After Reign, she was...it was bad.  She had a ton of injuries, and we were sure we’d gotten rid of Reign, but everyone was so worried, you know?  It wasn’t like there was a success rate we could refer to for the telepathic excavation of an implant that had been put into her brain as an infant.  We weren’t sure, and she was terrified, so she stayed in the DEO.”

“What, a slumber party?”

Alex sighs and rips a corner off the beer label off.  “More like voluntary confinement.  We did our best to make it as comfortable as possible, and she never complained, she didn’t trust herself to leave or anything like that, but it was still just...total shit.”  She rips another piece off of the label and rolls between her fingers, not looking away from the shredded edges of paper on the bottle.  “We all spent as much time with her as we could, then.  Me and Kara and Lena, J’onn, Winn, James, all of us.  To try and make it suck less.”

Sara doesn’t say anything, moving instead to leave the knives settled on the counter and sitting down onto one of the barstools.  She cracks open another beer and offers it to Alex, not moving until Alex has uprooted her feet to move across the kitchen and take it.  

“Things with Maggie,” Alex says eventually.  She leans her elbows onto the countertop and turns her beer bottle between her hands.  “It was this whirlwind.  She caught me completely off guard, and before I knew it I was turned completely upside down for her.  Everything was just big, huge, some hurricane or another of drama and action and feeling.  But with Sam it wasn’t like that at all.  We were friends, and then I was so scared for her, was sure she wasn’t going to survive Reign and trying to figure out a way we could save her, save Ruby.  Once we got through all of that, it just snuck up on me.  By the time she was going to leave the DEO, go home, it was just like...oh.”

“Oh?” Sara parrots back, flipping a beer cap between her hands.

“Oh,” Alex says.  “Like, oh, this gorgeous, accomplished, incredible friend feels like home every time I talk to her and even when I’ve had a shitty day, being around her makes things feel good.”

Sara raise an eyebrow at her, flipping the knife blindly, and Alex pulls in a long breath, counts her heartbeats against the rotations of the knife Sara’s tossing around.  

“She’s the strongest person I’ve ever met,” Alex says after a moment.  “Present company included.”

“Yeah, well, not all of us can by Kryptonian, you know.”

“That’s not what I meant and you know it,” Alex says softly.  “Not that I’m trying to discount everything you’ve been through--"

“Gee, thanks, Danvers.”

“--But what she’s done with her life is just...I don’t know how she’s picked up the pieces as many times as she has.”  Alex swallows half of her beer and sets back to rotating the bottle in her hands.  “Her mom threw her out when she got pregnant.  Sixteen years old, all on her own, and she still managed to go to college, to grad school, raise a great kid, run the largest company in the world.  And all that’s _before_ Reign.”

Sara trades her empty beer bottle for one of the knives, spinning it casually in one hand and focusing her attention on it instead of the distance in Alex’s eyes, allowing her the space to navigate the moment.  

“I’ve never really talked about this,” Alex says after a moment.  “I mean, Kara and I talk, obviously, but just-- we all lived through Reign.  It’s different, talking to someone who doesn’t have that baggage.”

“Baggage?” Sara drawls out, and Alex huffs out a sigh, manages to look up from the beer bottle long enough to roll her eyes at the toothy grin Sara’s offering her.

“Asshole,” Alex mumbles.

Sara blows her a kiss from the other side of the counter.  “Anyways,” she says.  “I’m happy for you, Danvers.  Really.  You deserve to be happy.”

Alex clears her throat, shaking her head and busying her hands with moving dishes into the sink.  Sara pauses in flipping the knife long enough to point it at Alex and offer a teasing _“Who knew you were such a sap?”_ before Alex’s phone rings from her back pocket, and she flips the towel off of her shoulder to throw at Sara.  “Stop throwing my knives around.”  

“Hey,” Sam says from the other side of the phone.  “Slight change of plans.”

“What?”

“So Kara just called,” Sam says, a lilt to her voice, and Alex groans.  “Ruby mentioned Sara, so now you have an incoming Kara.  Which means Lena and Winn and James too, probably.”

“We do _not_ have enough food for this many people,” Alex says with a groan.  “I’ll order something.”

On the other side of the kitchen, Sara now has two knives, tossing them between her hands, and she raises an eyebrow at Alex.   _Stop it_ , Alex mouths sharply at her, which only gets her an eyeroll and a third knife.

“Sorry, baby,” Sam says, smile evident even through the phone and clearly not sorry at all.

“Yeah, I bet you are,” Alex mumbles.  “How long do I have?”

“Probably about eighteen seconds,” Sam says brightly.  “See you when we get home.  Love you.”

“Love you too,” Alex says automatically as she ends the call, and Sara catches all three knives in one hand, moving smoothly to prop her chin in her free hand and grin way too wide at Alex.  

“Aren’t you two _adorable_ ,” Sara says.  

“Stop it,” Alex says sharply, clearing her throat and shoving her phone back into her pockets.  “Kara’s--”

The front door opens with a bang and a blur in a red cardigan slams into Sara for a hug.  

“--coming to say hi,” Alex finishes.  

“Thanks for the warning,” Sara says with a groan, wrapped up in Kara’s hug.  “Hey there.”

“What are you doing here?” Kara lets her go, settling her down neatly onto one of the barstools.  “Every time I talked to Barry he said you were off doing timey things and--”

“Sounds about right for a time ship, don’t you think?” Sara says.  “We finished up a few things and everyone needed a break, so, you know.  Thought I’d stop by and see if your dumb sister was still moping over her ex girlfriend.”

“Hey!” Alex throws a beer cap at her.  She catches it in midair and hurls it right back.  

“Where’s Sam?” Kara catches the next cap Alex throws and crunches it down into a tiny ball.  “Did you meet Sam?”

“Oh, we met,” Sara says. “I’ve got the bruises to prove it.”

“To be fair, you opened a portal into our living room,” Alex says.  “If it had been me, I probably would’ve shot you.”

“It’s cute that you think you’re fast enough,” Sara throws back with a wink.  She flips one of the knives up into the air.  

“Stop throwing my knives,” Alex says again.  The door opens again and Ruby hustles in, soccer bag and Sam in tow, just in time to see Sara flipping all three knives into the air and catching them neatly.

“Whoa,” Ruby says, slamming to a halt, eyes wide.  “How did you do that?”

“It’s easy,” Sara says with a shrug and a casual spin of one of the knives.  “If you want I can te--”

“No you can’t,” Alex says sharply at the same time that Sam clears her throat loudly and arches an eyebrow at Sara.

“--totally not teach you,” Sara finishes.  She looks from Alex to Sam and back again, then point the base of one knife in Sam’s direction.  “She’s scarier than you.”

Kara slaps a hand over her mouth, failing completely at keeping her laugh quiet, and Ruby matches suit.  One side of Sam’s mouth quirks up into a smile, and Alex sighs and crosses her arms over her chest.

“Oh, this is going to a _super_ fun night,” she mumbles.  

“Ruby,” Sam says after a moment.  “Didn’t you say you wanted to show Kara that flippy thing you learned at practice?”

“What flippy thing?” Kara freezes, spoonful of bolognese halfway to her mouth.

“I learned a flip throw,” Ruby says, arms over her chest and chin up proudly.  She yanks her soccer bag up.  “Come on, I’ll show you.”  

Kara rounds the counter and yanks Sara up over one shoulder.  “Come on, you’re gonna want to see this.”

“Really?” Sara mumbles, not fighting back.  She winks at Sam and salutes as she goes by, carried out the door to the backyard.

“She’s going to teach Ruby how to use throwing stars,” Alex groans as the door clangs shut behind them.

“I mean, I guess as long as we make sure she doesn’t _leave_ any throwing stars here, then it’s fine, right?” Sam hooks a finger into Alex’s beltloop and tugs her around, arms settling over her shoulders easily.  “But if she does break a window, I’m not the one dealing with it.”

Alex groans and drops her head onto Sam’s shoulder.  Her arms curl around Sam’s waist and she huffs out a small sigh and pushes closer.

“You sure you’re okay with everyone here tonight?” Alex says after a moment.  She pulls back, hands anchored at Sam’s hips, and tilts her head towards the backyard.  “You were supposed to have a nice easy day off.”

“What’s a quiet evening in when we can have someone teleport into the living room and teach our kid how to throw knives,” Sam says with a shrug and a grin.  “Anyways, we can still pawn Ruby off on Kara for the weekend and you can make it up to me.”

“I can make it up to _you_ ?”  Alex’s hand slides under the hem of Sam’s shirt, fingertips pressing into her lower back.  “I’m the one whose plans got ruined, you know.   _Plans_ , Sam.”

“And then _your_ time-traveling assassin conquest showed up and ruined it.”  Sam lifts an eyebrow at her.  “Pretty sure that means you owe me dinner.”

“Maybe I’ll just give you the dinner I made and let everyone else go fend for themselves,” Alex says with a grumble.  

“Tempting, but I’d rather not have Kara bulldozing around our kitchen in search of food.  The cabinet doors are still recovering from last time.”

“Okay, true, but have you considered,” Alex says, fingers moving against Sam’s back with more intent.  “That when you get all functional-handyman and break out the tool belt to fix things, it’s _really_ hot.”

“Yeah?”

“Definitely yeah.”  Alex pushes up on her toes, angling for kiss.

“So you’re not still offended that I can change a tire faster than you?”

Alex drops back onto her heels with a groan.  “Had to bring that up, didn’t you?”

“Gotta keep you on your toes.”  Sam winks and presses a short kiss to her mouth.  “Now, how are we going to feed the hoard?”

Alex sighs and pulls back enough to grab her phone from the counter.  “Pizza or Chinese?”

Sam blinks at her slowly and points towards the backyard, currently occupied by a teenager and an assassin and a Kryptonian,, and Alex huffs out a grumble.

“Fine, both.”  She unlocks her phone and pulls out of Sam’s arms.  “Can you see when the rest of them are showing up?”  She backs through the door to the backyard, yelling for Ruby.

Sam peers out to the backyard for a moment, to where Ruby and Kara argue over what to order, yanking Alex’s phone between the two of them while Alex juggles the soccer ball in the background, shoulders slumped and resigned to the fact that she’ll probably have to replace her phone yet again.

“Hey.”

Sam blinks rapidly, shaking her head and pulling back from her stare out the window.  Sara’s in the doorway, hands out in front of her.  

“Sorry, didn’t mean to--”

“It’s okay,” Sam says.  She tilts her head towards the window.  “You didn’t want to be part of the ordering debacle?”

“I’m not picky,” Sara says with a shrug.  “Also I wanted to make sure we’re cool.”

“Hm?” Sam takes the lid off the pot and pokes a finger into the sauce.  Sara watches, eyebrows raising, as Sam moves the pot off the burner without oven mitts, Kryptonian hands unmarred by the hot metal.

“Do the Krytponite bracelets not make you more-- well--”

“Human?” Sam licks a remnant of bolognese off her finger and flashes her palms towards Sara.  

“I didn’t meant to--”

“It’s okay,” Sam says again.  She plucks at one of the inhibitors on her wrist.  “They take the edge off.  Make it easier for me to be sure I’m not going to accidentally hurt someone.  But they don’t take the powers away.  Just make it easier for me to control.”

“Why doesn’t Kara have them?”

Sam shrugs, smiles, eyes downcast and shoulders following suit.  “I’m not exactly like her,” she says.  “I have-- had.  Had more power than she did.  And they couldn’t get rid of it, so this was an alternative solution.”

“Remind me to never get on your bad side,” Sara says.  She leans against the doorway.  “But I really did just want to make sure we’re cool, you and me.”

“You mean because you teleported into my house and I almost killed you?”

“I’m tougher than I look, you know.”  Sara bristles, and Sam grins at her, wide and bright and teasing, and for a second Sara sees her as Alex does, and something clicks into place in her chest.  “Mostly I meant because Alex and I, you know, hooked up.  A few times.”

“What kind of troglodyte do you people think I am?” Sam says with a grumble.  She pulls a bottle of wine from the rack and turns in a circle in the middle of the kitchen, searching for the bottle opener.  “I’m not going to be angry that Alex saw other people before we were together.  She was engaged the first time I met her, for God’s sake.”

“Hey, I just wanted to be sure,” Sara says, palms out in front of her again.  She points to the bottle opener, half-obscured under the beer label remnants Alex had decimated over the last two hours.  “Also because, in the interest of full disclosure, I absolutely was planning on this whole visit involving me getting laid.”

“Can’t say I blame you.”  Sam shrugs and smiles at her, sharp and toothy, as she pulls the cork out of the bottle, and Sara can’t help but grin right back at her.  “She’s super hot.”

“You know,” Sara says after a moment, smile fading.  She shakes her head when Sam offers her a wine glass.  “She was-- well.  A mess when we met.  It was after she and Maggie split up, and she was just a complete disaster.”

“I know,” Sam says quietly.  “I mean, I don’t _know_ , clearly, but I also was there for the aftermath.”

“And now she’s happy,” Sara says.  “You make her happy.”

“That’s the going concern, as a rule.”  Sam pours herself a glass of wine and clears her throat carefully.  “I always figured it was going to be just me and Ruby.  For a long time, it was.  But then we moved here, and met Alex and Kara, and Alex just-- I don’t even know.”

“Feels like home?” Sara offers.  Sam shrugs and salutes her with her wine glass.  “That’s what she said about you, at least.  And it’s good, too, because if you didn’t, I’d have to kill you”

Sam rolls her eyes and swallows half of her wine.  “You mean you aren’t going to try and kill me because I ruined your interdimensional booty call?”

Sara sighs and shrugs. “I suppose I can let it go,” she drawls.  “Only because she looks so stupidly happy now.”

“How generous of you,” Sam says flatly, smiling in spite of herself and tipping her glass towards Sara once more.

“You’re lucky as hell,” Sara adds.  “She knows what she’s doing with those hands, that’s for sure.”

“God, I know, right?” Sam says, one hand slapping onto the counter and eyes rolling upwards for a long moment just before the back door opens and Alex bounces back into the kitchen.  

“What do you guys want to order--” Alex pauses, looking between Sara and Sam, both of whom are grinning at her, too wide to be innocent.  “What’s going on in here?”

“We’re talking about you,” Sara says.  “Obviously.”

“What she said.”  Sam points at Sara and chugs the rest of her wine.

“Oh, God,” Alex mutters, flushing impressively.  

“I was about to bring up that thing you can do with your tongue,” Sara says mildly.  “Comparing notes.”

Outside, there’s a shriek from what has to be Kara of “Oh _God_ ”, and Alex drops her head into her hands.  “I can’t believe you two,” she says, slumping down to lean on the counter.  Sam’s free arm falls to her waist anyways, hand stroking between her shoulder blades, even as her own shoulders shake with laughter.

“If it makes you feel any better, it’s all complimentary,” she says.  

“Nope.  Nope.  That doesn’t make it better at all,” Alex mumbles into her hands.  

“Sure it does, champ,” Sara says.  She punches Alex’s shoulder on her way towards the back door, pausing only to wink at Sam on her way.

“I can’t believe you guys,” Alex groans, pulling her head up enough to look up at Sam in pure betrayal.  “Especially you.  I expect Sara to be-- but you--”

“Can you really blame me?”  Sam’s hand slides back down her back, hitching up under her shirt and skimming along her skin until she can grip at her hip.  She presses a kiss to Alex’s temple.  “The incredibly hot time traveling superhero you slept with in another universe pops in to say hi and we don’t get to compare notes about how good you are in bed?”

“Oh, God,” Alex mumbles, even as leans into Sam.  “This is so not what I had planned out of this weekend.  I just wanted a nice easy couple of days with you, no crises, no kids, nowhere to be, but this is what I get instead.  You and Sara standing in the kitchen, drinking and talking about--”

“About the fact that you’re _really_ good in bed?”

“Oh, God.”

“I’m just saying, baby, that’s how the conversation went.”  Sam kisses her shoulder, chin propping on it afterwards.  “After she told me how lucky I was and how she’d kill me if I didn’t make you happy.”

“She what?”  Tension snaps through Alex’s shoulders and legs, her body coiling with the intention to shoot Sara with a tranquilizer dart, but Sam keeps a solid grip on her hip, Kryptonian strength too much for Alex to break out of.

“She’s your friend,” Sam says, pressing another kiss to her shoulder.  “She wants to make sure you’re happy.”

“I’m still going to shoot her,” Alex mutters, even as she sinks into Sam’s grip.  She lets out a sigh and turns to kiss Sam.  “And you’re a total jerk.”

“Yeah, that’s me.”  Sam rolls her eyes.  “Asshole of the year, right here.”

“Seriously.”  Alex kisses her again, smiling into the kiss and fingers curling into the collar of her shirt.  

Sam’s phone buzzes, cutting into the moment, and she rolls her eyes as she digs it out of her pocket without breaking Alex’s hold.  

“Lena’s running late,” she says.  She discards her phone onto the counter.  “Like this was a pre-planned family cookout instead of a totally impromptu hangout.”

“Still can’t believe we have to feed everyone,” Alex grumbles.  “You’re the one who owes me now, for the record.  Inviting everyone over and then trading sex stories with Sara.”

“Didn’t you say you just had a nice easy weekend in store?  What exactly did I disrupt?”

“Totally not the point,” Alex says.

“For all you know, _I_ had plans for the weekend,” Sam says, wrinkling her nose.  

“Did you?”

“Well, maybe,” Sam says with a shrug.  “Maybe not, if everything’s apparently been totally derailed, like you said.”

“This isn’t like that time you said you had something fun and dirty planned for the weekend when Ruby was at summer camp and it turned out to be cleaning out your garage, is it?”

“It was not going to be, but now that you mention it--”

“Samantha Arias,” Alex says sharply.  “We are not spending the first weekend we’ve had off with Ruby out of the house in six months cleaning out the garage.”

“It was one time,” Sam says, rolling her eyes.  “But fine.  No.  That was not part of said plans.”

“And what was part of said plans?” Alex turns so she can hop up and sit on the counter, fingers finding Sam’s shoulders and pulling her around to stand between Alex’s knees.  

“Well, if you must know,” Sam says slowly, trailing off and digging her fingers into Alex’s hips, lips finding the side of her neck.  

“Behave,” Alex says, even as her heartbeat trips over itself for a moment when Sam bites her ear.  A rush of hot breath hits her throat when Sam sighs, and she squirms momentarily.

“Ruin my fun, why don’t you,” Sam mumbles.  She pushes back and reaches past Alex, pushing flush against her to reach far enough to the other edge of the counter and grab her briefcase.  She works the buckle open with one hand, still pressed against Alex with her other hand pressing easily to Alex’s back, fingers fitting habitually between her vertebra.  She pulls out a folder and shoves the briefcase away, pulling back enough to stand upright again and offers the folder to Alex.  “I was going to talk to you on Sunday, but now’s as good a time.”

“About what?” Alex’s forehead creases, the folder sitting limply in her hands.  She moves to open it, only to be stopped by Sam putting a hand on top of it.  

“Before you-- I just want you to know that this doesn’t change anything either way, and at best it’s just a formality, and that I love you and--”

“Hey, hey, hold up,” Alex says.  She drops the folder onto the counter and wraps her hands around Sam’s wrists, holding her still.  “Are you okay?  Whatever this is, it doesn’t need to be something you worry about.”

Sam pulls in a deep breath, and then another, nodding carefully. She pushes forward to kiss Alex, slow and soft, hands pulling free and falling to her rest on her knees.  Long seconds pass until she pulls back and nods towards the folder.  Breath holds in her chest, knotting behind her sternum, as Alex picks it up and flips it open, staring down at the adoption paperwork inside it.

“Sam,” she says after a long moment, her voice wavering and fingers gripping too tight to the folder and wrinkling the edges.  “Is this--”

“I know we talked about marriage already,” Sam rushes out.  “And decided to wait.  But this-- you’re already like a mother to Ruby, and we’re all in this for the long haul, and this is just...a formality.  Paperwork.  She’s already your kid in her eyes and mine, and this is just formalizing that.  If you want.”

“If I want,” Alex says, wobbly and uncertain.  “To adopt Ruby.”

“Yes,” Sam says carefully.  “Like I said, if you don’t want to, it won’t change anything with us, and she’s going to be a legal adult like scarily soon anyways, but she and I talked about it and we-- this is something we want, if you do.”

“If I want to adopt Ruby,” Alex says again.  She blinks up to meet Sam’s uncertain gaze, eyes wide and shining, her jaw clenched tight, and Sam forces her breathing to stay level.  “Of course I want to.”

“You do?”  The ache in her chest breaks free, tension flying out of her body and leaving her sagging against Alex in the kitchen, forehead dropping down to Alex’s shoulder.  “Really?”

“God, yes, of course I do,” Alex mumbles into the side of her neck, arms tight around her shoulders.  “Are you sure?  Is Ruby?”

“Yes and yes.”  Sam pulls back enough to catch Alex’s eyes, nodding vigorously.  “Absolutely.  We talked about it a lot.  This weekend was her idea so I could talk to you about it.”

“Oh my God,” Alex says, swiping at her eyes and shaking her head.  “I didn’t-- I never thought that--”

“We’re a family,” Sam says.  Her hands press to Alex’s cheeks, eyes wide and holding Alex’s gaze.  “You and me and Ruby.  I love you, and Ruby loves you.  This is our _family_.”

“I love you,” Alex mumbles, blinking rapidly, and Sam smiles, blinking through her own tears, and kisses her, laughing into the kiss.  

“I love you,” she echoes, speaking against Alex’s lips.  

The door bangs open and Ruby and Sara and Kara tumble in, slamming to a halt to stare at the both of them.  

“Well now,” Sara says, folding her arms over her chest.  “Don’t tell me we’re interrupting.”

Alex sniffs and laughs and wipes at her eyes, shaking her head and not releasing her hold on Sam.  Ruby’s gaze goes from Alex to Sam to the folder in Alex’s hands, and her eyes go wide.

“Did you--”

“Yeah, babe,” Sam says, temple leaning against Alex’s.  “I did.”

Ruby’s mouth snaps shut, her eyes impossibly wider and focusing on Alex, who finally untangles from Sam and hops off the counter.  It’s enough to uproot Ruby’s feet from the floor, and she slams into Alex for a hug, hands fisting into her shirt and holding tight.

“What’s going on?” Kara says slowly, glancing at the three of them and then to Sara, who shrugs and holds her hands out.

“Beats me, I’m just visiting.”

Sam presses against her Alex’s back and wraps one arm around her and Ruby, holding the folder out to Kara with the other and propping her chin on Alex’s shoulder.  Somewhere in the background, there’s a knock on the front door, drowned out by Kara’s excited squeal.  Lena and J’onn and James and Winn all run into the room, concern written across their faces, only to be confronted with Sam and Alex and Ruby wrapped up in a hug, Kara jumping around in front of them, and Sara watching the whole spectacle with a bottle of scotch in one hand that she’d somehow found.

“What happened?  Is someone attacking?”  The question comes from a man who really is exactly the clone of a general they’d met on Earth X hits a dog-whistle pitch,  eyes wide and concerned, and Sara shakes her head and uncorks the bottle.  Kara leaps over to him and wraps him up in a hug, spinning him around.

“What’s going on?” J’onn says slowly.  He raises an eyebrow at Sara, who shrugs and takes a swig of whiskey. “Who are you?”

“Sara,” she says by way of introduction.  “Friend of the family,” she adds flippantly.  

“Oh, wait, are you Sara who time travels?” Winn says from within Kara’s hold, gasping out the words and slapping at her arms.

“That would be me.”  She gestures towards the hugging mass that’s Alex and Sam and Ruby.  “Stopped in to say hi and got caught up in some family nonsense.”  She takes another sip of whiskey, using the opportunity to look up and down James, and then Lena.  “Trip might still work out as planned, though.”

“Sara, _don’t_!” Alex yells from her spot in the middle of Sam and Ruby.  Sara smiles and shrugs and takes another sip of whiskey.  Maybe she can still salvage some stress relief from the trip after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **please note:** it came to my attention that someone had, prior to my posting of the second chapter of this fic, [written something in the same vein](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13414809/chapters/31510239). i would be remiss if i didn't link to that fic, since it was posted before mine, and would like to state that i had no intention of writing similar content as their fic.


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